Ballad of Anguish
by Sailor Gotland
Summary: An old friend of Ran is brutally raped and murdered, and Conan ends up in a case where he suddenly is the victim... UPDATED! ... Now with the Black Organisation. .
1. Falling Star

~~Ballad of Anguish~~  
  
A Detective Conan fanfic by Sailor Gotland  
  
Author's notes: I have read 20 volumes of the Conan manga, and seen about 160 episodes, so I only know that much about Conan. Please keep that in mind when reading, okay? ^^;; Another thing... I'm from Sweden, so my English spelling and grammar suck bigtime... T.T  
  
Warnings: Non graphic rape scene, a bit of foul language, and death. If you can stomach that, please enjoy! ^___^  
  
~~Ballad of Anguish~~  
  
1. Falling Star...  
  
"What? An old friend?" Edogawa Conan blinked confused as he peered at Mori Ran who sat across the table, sipping on a diet Coke. Conan frowned, he sure hadn't heard about this Utako that Ran was talking about.  
  
"Well, Utako is her stage name, you see", Ran explained, smiling at the small boy. "Her real name is Toyota Fukiko. She was in my class when I was just a kid. Shinichi knew her a little bit I think."  
  
Conan thought about that for a bit. Fukiko? Did he know her? Straining his memory, the picture of a shy girl with blonde pigtails came to mind. Her western feautures had made her the laughingstock of the class, and, if he remembered correctly, Ran had been the only girl who ever befriended her.  
  
"I don't know why exactly", Ran continued, "but she has invited me to her first live consert here in Tokyo, and she said I could bring my boyfriend too. She's crazy, you know. As if I would ever have a boyfriend..."  
  
Ran's voice trailed of, and the familiar stab of guilt that just loved to come and torment Conan every other time, returned at full force. Damn it all, he hated this body! He hated Edogawa Conan, he hated the Black Organisation, he hated the god forsaken APTX 4869 drug that had turned him from seventeen year old Kudo Shinichi to puny Edogawa Conan in a very painful manner, and he really, really hated the fact that he couldn't tell Ran the truth about himself.  
  
The young master detective felt his appatite vanish from him and he put down his hamburger, half eaten, and sighed inwarldy. He still couldn't tell Ran, she'd be in too much danger. Still, he had to cheer her up. It was partly his fault she felt down after all.   
  
"Hey, Ran-neechan", he chirped in his most childlike manner. "How about _I_ go with you? I can be your boyfriend, can't I? Please!!"  
  
Not that he was all that exited to go, he knew about one popstar, Okino Yoko, and that was enough. He wanted Ran to feel better, though.   
  
Ran blinked in surprise, then she smiled, her eyes suddenly suspiciously shining. She wasn't about to cry, was she? Conan looked away, feeling a blush rush to his face.  
  
"My... Boyfriend...? Yes, I'd like that. I'd very much like that, Conan-kun. Thank you."  
  
****   
  
The sun was just setting as the car parked outside of the big dome where Utako would make her preformance. Ran's father, Mori Kogoro, made a lot of fuss, telling Ran over and over that she'd be careful. She shrugged it of, smiling. She had Conan to protect her if anything went wrong, she pointed out, wich blew Mori over the top. He started a new monolouge about the dangers a young girl could run into, but neither Ran nor Conan listened.   
  
It had been a beautiful day, a day that had entire Tokyo bathing in warm sunlight. Almost no clouds, and a perfect temperature, somewhere around 24 C. By now, the temperature had dropped to 17 C, but it was still nice and pretty warm.   
  
On the building, several bright posters displayed a young woman with wavy blonde hair, sparkling green eyes and a perfect set of fake breasts - Conan could tell because their shape was too perfect, too alike - and she held a microphone close to her painted lips. Around her, jets of colored laser crossed the picture in a slightly tacky pattern.   
  
"Ran-neechan", Conan mumbled, pulling her sleeve. "Do you even know if she's any good?"  
  
"I have no idea", Ran answered truthfully. "I've never heard her. But I know she's promoted as some kind of..." She stopped herself, blushing.   
  
Conan raised an eyebrow, guessing what she had been about to say. Utako was promoted as some kind of sex-symbol. It was pretty easy to tell from the posters, and the fact that most of the crowd waiting to come into the consert hall were male. Conan couldn't help but wonder if little ugly duckling Fukiko enjoyed the new attention she got as a swan, or if she dispised it.  
  
  
  
****  
  
"Even more flowers?!" Fukiko felt slightly nausiated. That was the nineth batch of flowers in one week. From one single person. This was getting far to creepy. And the managers that told her not to worry about it. That she shouldn't cause so much ruccus at the start of her carieer. She felt so utterly lonely and unprotected. What if... What if some maniac where out there somewhere, some sick stalker who just wated for her to be alone at the wrong place at the wrong time, waited to jump her, rape her and maybe kill her? One never knew.  
  
She didn't want to sing tonight.  
  
She knew Ran would come, though. She had made sure. Fukiko hoped her old friend would bring her boyfriend. Or rumored boyfriend, anyway. Kudo Shinichi. He was some sort of genius school detective by now, wasn't he? So, if he came, everything would be all right. For now at least.   
  
"Utako, honey", her manager shouted. "You're due on stage in three minutes!"  
  
"I'm coming!"  
  
****  
  
He slid his finger over the picture. Utako's perfect skin became soiled with blood from his hand. He had cut his finger on the paper he held in his other hand. It didn't matter. Papercuts couldn't kill you. Other things could, but nothing would ever kill him. He was invincible. And the best thing of all, no one knew what he was capable of doing. And that gave him power. And power... Power was control. Power was being in charge of your own life. And that meant that the gods smiled upon you. When you lost control, the gods hated you. And he had lost control. All because of her. But, tonight she would suffer. Tonight she would pay for everything that had happened. All because of her. It was all because of her.  
  
****  
  
They got places up front. That was kind of good. Ran loved it, she jumped and cheered and was having a blast, waving to Fukiko as she danced across the stage. Conan was bored after ten minutes, had a killing headache in thirty, and when the consert finally was over, after two hours, he just wanted to go home and sleep. The songs had been shallow, too upbeat and too mechanically sung. They sucked. Remebering the time he had been on stage together with TWO-MIX, remembering Minami's charisma, Fukiko just didn't cut it. She danced well enough, and her skirt flew up ever so often, flashing her black silk panties to the cheering crowd. Conan drew a deep breath of relief as the encore finally was over.  
  
****  
  
With a mist of parfume around her, Fukiko threw herself in Ran's arms, hugging the other girl close. Conan fell back, leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. He felt so out of place here, in this pink and yellow loge that belonged to Fukiko while she was in Tokyo.   
  
After a few welcoming words, Fukiko spotted Conan, and she turned to Ran in bewilderment.  
  
"And you must tell me... Who is that kid?"  
  
"Oh, him? He's Edogawa Conan. He's one of my best friends, and he stays at our house. I asked him to come instead of my boyfriend, is that ok? I mean, not that I have a boyfried or anything, but..."  
  
"Really?" Fukiko eyed Conan suspiciously a couple of seconds, then she frowned.   
  
"Ran-chan", she continued. "That kid is strange. Doesn't he remind you a lot about Kudo-kun?"  
  
Conan felt his heart skip a beat and he tried his best to keep from making some strange face.   
  
Ran blinked, then sighed.  
  
"Yeah, they really are alike. But you know... I've been talking to Shinichi on the phone, and Conan was with me at that time. That made me certain they aren't..."  
  
"What, the same person? Were you going to say that?" Fukiko laughed. "Well, that's absurd. I just thought they might be brothers or something."  
  
Ran blushed.  
  
"Oh."  
  
Conan wanted very badly to step on Fukiko's toe. Do something. But he didn't. He only wanted to get out of here. If he did, he could use the voice changer and phone Ran, as Shinichi. He really wanted to talk to her, as himself. And he could tell she missed him too.  
  
Since he didn't wear his usual school uniform, he didn't have his voice changer with him, since the device was on the little bowtie that came with the uniform. He did have his special watch and his glasses, in case something would come up. Something about him just seemed to pull dead bodies and murderers to him, like some crime magnet. He didn't mind it too much, really. Of course the crimes got to him, but he wasn't above being thrilled when new riddles showed their faces, since solving riddles was his absolute favorite pastime.   
  
Conan could tell Ran felt uneasy, the way she looked around in the room, trying to find something good to say to lighten the mood. He decided to help her out.  
  
"Hello, Utako-san", he smiled and bowed politely. "My name is Edogawa Conan, and I think you're very pretty!"  
  
The singer smiled back, nodding to herself.   
  
"Well, hello to you too. And since you're so nice, I can overlook the fact that it took you like five minutes to introduce yourself to me, kid."  
  
Now, that was uncalled for, wasn't it? She had been the one who threw herself on Ran and completely ignored him. Conan tried his best to keep his face straight, not to make a very un-childlike scorn. He had to say something. He quickly let his eyes dart across the room, and he grinned when he found something to comment on. It was pretty obvious, but it couldn't be helped.  
  
"Wow, Utako-san! You really have a lot of flowers here! There almost aren't any flowers at all over at Ran-neechan's house."  
  
It was just a split second, but Conan didn't fail to notice. A shadow of fright, panic or terror passed across the singer's face before she forced a smile to her lips.  
  
"Aren't they pretty? My fans love me, you see, and they love to give me things to show that. How about it, kid? Do you have a girlfriend or something?"  
  
Cut the smug crap, girlie, Conan thought annoyed. You don't impress me one bit. However... The cards on at least five of the flowers are from the same store, I can tell so much from here. And if I'm not mistaken, the handwriting is the same too. Now, how normal is that? Is someone stalking her? It wouldn't surprise me.  
  
Fukiko straightened herself up and turned to Ran.  
  
"Actually, there's something I'd like to talk to you about. It wouldn't be a good idea if the kid listened, though. You think he can go play or something?"  
  
Ran bit her lip and glanced down at Conan. She knew the boy had an unhealthy habit of snooping around where he really shouldn't be, he had seen more dead bodies than even she had in her entire life, something that had to affect his mind in some way. Maybe it would be good if he just went away somewhere and played for a while. But, if she sent him away, would he stay where she put him? Conan? Hardly.  
  
"Let me go talk to him in private, okay?"  
  
"Is that really... Okay, do as you like." Fukiko shrugged and began to toy with a little bottle of nailpolish, looking extremely bored.  
  
****  
  
"Conan, will you please listen to me? I don't know what this is all about, but something's bothering Fukiko-chan, and she really wants to talk to me alone. Can't you just please, just this once, do me this little favor and go home? Or something."  
  
Conan and Ran had walked outside, away from all the buzzing commotion backstage, and Conan breathed thankfully the air, free from parfume, talk and other oddities.   
  
"But, Ran-neechan", he said thoughtfully, "she's scared, did you notice? I want to know what's wrong, so..."  
  
"No you don't! Conan, plesae listen to me. You're just a kid, you shouldn't concern yourself so much with adult problems. It's not good for you. Please, go home! I'll call for a cab, okay?"  
  
Conan sighed. He didn't want to cause Ran more trouble than he really had to, so just this once, he'd listen to her. But first...  
  
"I have to go to the bathroom! Call the cab when I'm done, okay?"  
  
"Okay. And then I'll go talk to Fukiko-chan. When I know you're safe on your way home."  
  
She smiled as she watched his tiny figure dart inside. And suddenly a feeling of Deja-Vu came to her. It felt almost as the time at the amusementpark... When she had seen Shinichi run of, chasing that suspicious man. And then... What happened then? She had only talked to Shinichi a few times over the phone after that. And she had seen him in the flesh one or two times. And it had been so many months ago.   
  
"I will see you again, right? Conan-kun..."   
  
She blinked, realizing what she had just whispered. Of course she would see him again. She really didn't understand what was up with her. But somehow... Somehow it felt like he was disappearing. Just like...  
  
"Shinichi..."  
  
****  
  
Fukiko opened her eyes. Her head hurt. She tried to remember. Ran and the kid had left. She had started to undress, change from her stageclothes to her more regular ones. And then... Then she had noticed someone coming into her room. And then... A sharp pang in the head.   
  
This was unreal. This didn't happen. This couldn't happen. What about security? She still hurt. Everywhere. Sound? There was this sound. Was it a pig? No, couldn't be. Her mind cleared up more and more, and suddenly she realized what was going on. She lay on the floor, somewhere in the basement. She was naked and her legs were spread widely apart. Someone lay on top of her, someone was assulting her. She was being raped.   
  
"No! Get of me, you son of a bitch! Get of me!"  
  
She tried to kick, she tried to hit him, she tried to do everything she could to defend herself, but she knew in the pit of her stomach, it was too late. And she wouldn't have a chance against him anyway.  
  
****  
  
This was unnatural, Conan figured. A star such as Fukiko wouldn't leave the door to her dressing lounge open like that. It wasn't much open, only slightly ajar, but it was enough to look out of place. The young detective frowned. He knew he had promised Ran not to do anything stupid, but...  
  
He peeked inside and grimly confirmed what he already guessed. It was the scene of a crime. The clothes all lay on the floor, the floor on which some blood was splattered. Fukiko was nowhere to be seen.   
  
Conan thwirled around and rushed over to one of the security guards.   
  
"What are you guys doing, sleeping?! Call the police, Utako has been abducted!"  
  
The guard blinked stupidly at him.  
  
"What are you babbling about, kid? That can't be, one of our men just checked on her a few minutes ago."  
  
Really? That could explain a few things, how the kidnapping was even possible for example. Well, he had to deal with that later. Now...  
  
"Come see for yourself if you don't believe me! You have to call the police. Go on!"  
  
It dawned on the guard that the boy could just be telling the truth, and he fumbled about, trying to both pick up his phone and dial the number at the same time.   
  
Conan left him and rushed back to the scene of the crime. Maybe he'd spot some kind of clue.   
  
****  
  
Sure enough, he did. After looking around very carefully for maybe a minute or so, he spotted a really faint trail of blood. It wasn't much, a drop here and there, but it lead away from the crimescene over to the firestairs. This wasn't a professional job, so much Conan could tell. This was far too sloppy. Well then, all the better, then this would be solved in no time. He just hoped Fukiko was more or less unharmed.   
  
The trail led down to the basement in the neighboring house. The house itself was abandoned. Old. This was too obvious. This was too easy. Conan frowned. He had a strange, uneasy feeling in his stomach. He didn't like it when things were too easy.  
  
The basement was dark. He found a switch, but the power was dead. Well, he'd just had to cope with the faint light that seeped in trhough the tiny widows close to the roof. After walking about fifty meters, he found her. She lay on her back, legs wide apart, the stench of blood and sex still painfully fresh. Conan fought back a wave of nausea.  
  
"Fukiko-san...?" He couldn't hear her breath. He fumbled with his fingers over her throat, searching for the pulse. He didn't find any, he did find a thin, swollen line that went around her throat. She had been strangled. He was too late to save her.  
  
"I'm sorry", he mumbled. He hadn't liked her, but no one deserved an end like this. And what about the killer? The man who had raped her and then murdered her, he had to be somewhere nearby. But where?  
  
A sound startled Conan. He got to his feet and spun around as quickly as he could. He saw the dark figure of a man looming over him. Something fell threw the air, he could feel the air against his face before the bottle hit him square right above his left eye. A blinding pain, and everything went bright white, and then black.  
  
****  
  
The man stared at the little boy at his feet. The boy was still alive. He breathed. He looked a bit dorky, huge glasses and a very proper haircut. Boring clothes. Still, he was pretty cute. Somewhere in the man's brain it dawned on him. If he had the boy, then...  
  
Chuckling to himself he picked up Conan and held him close. He removed the boy's glasses.   
  
"You're prettier without them", he whispered, then walked up the stairs from the basement, feeling thrilled over his new price.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED... 


	2. Lonely Hearts

**Ballad of Anguish**

A Detective Conan fanfic by _Sailor Gotland_

Author's notes: I have read 28 volumes of the Conan manga, and seen about 170 episodes, so I only know that much about Conan. Please keep that in mind when reading, okay? ;; Another thing... I'm from Sweden, so my English spelling and grammar suck bigtime... T.T

How come my fics always grow on me? Xx;;

Warnings: Hinting at non-consensual shota-con, a bit of foul language, and death. If you can stomach that, please enjoy!

**Ballad of Anguish**

_2. Lonely Hearts..._

The clock on the wall showed 02:15 AM. The sound of it's ticking echoed in Ran's ears like a foreboding of doom. She sat in her father's office, unable to sleep, all though tired to the bone. Her eyes burned, tears had puffed the area around them, but now no more fell. Her nose felt thick and her throat sore. She had been crying so much, but what good did it do? The lump of hopelessness in her stomach hadn't melted away, her hands hadn't stopped trembling and her arms were still empty.

He hadn't come back. They had searched for him, they still searched for him, but they hadn't found him. Conan was missing. Fukiko was dead, her ravaged body had been found and an investigation had started. But the police hadn't found any trace of Conan. They were still investigating the area where the star's body had been found, but so far, Ran hadn't heard anything. She only knew that an old friend had been murdered, her new little friend, whom she regarded as her little brother, was missing, and there was still a ruthless murder on the loose.

"Shinichi", she whispered, her voice hoarse. "Shinichi, you know where he is, right? You'll help Conan, right? Can you hear me, Shinichi? Why don't you answer? Oh please... Where are you...?"

Her voice broke, the tears came anew.

In the doorframe behind her, her father stood. He had an unusually solemn expression on his face, and his eyes were dark with worry.

"Kudo is missing?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so."

Professor Agasa looked perfectly devastated. He sat at his table, head in his hands, his shoulders slumped down in defeat. Miyano Shio, or Haibara Ai as she called herself, shook her head in confusion.

"I never thought he'd be so stupid... He'll never learn, will he? He's not superman. He isn't invulnerable and he isn't immortal. Too bad he has to get himself into trouble before he realizes that."

As the young woman with the body of a child talked, she struggled to get her heavy laptop up from a backpack she had left standing on the floor next to the professor's counter. Her small hands had trouble grasping the computer, but she quickly thrust her leg forward, using her lap as support. Still, it was pretty heavy.

Professor Agasa finally noticed her plight, and got to his feet. He took the laptop from her hands and placed it on the nearest desk.

"What are you trying to do", he asked Ai curiously.

"I have no time to explain", she said shortly, but added the second later, her voice softer:

"But thank you."

His world spun around, his head hurt more than he cared to think about, and he felt more than slightly nauseous. He guessed he had a slight concussion, not that it mattered... He still was alive after all.

Conan groaned, trying to recollect what had happened to him. His eyes felt heavy, as if something was preventing him from moving his eyelids. That idol, Ran's childhood friend... He hadn't been able to save her, right? She was dead; he had found her in the darkness. And then what? He remembered hearing a sound. A sound of what...? His head hurt. Had someone attacked him? It seemed like it. He had seen too much, again. So what had stopped the criminal from killing him this time? '_I won't be surprised if they shrunk me to a toddler this time'_, he thought darkly.

"The little boy is moving... Is the little boy awake...?"

The voice was deep, without authority and with a slight slur to it. Conan instantaneously disliked it. Forcing his eyes open, he could barely make out a dark figure a few meters away from him. The man, because he guessed it was a man, given the figure's height and build, stood leaning against something the teenager-turned-child couldn't make out for the life of him. A car perhaps...? The smell of oil and gas lay heavy in the air, and the floor underneath Conan was cold, like concrete. They could be in a garage, but then again, they didn't have to be. He definitely disliked the situation.

"Sweet little boy, are you afraid? Am I scaring you? Don't be afraid..."

Okay, this was starting to creep Conan out a little too much. The man sounded almost... if he didn't know better, he'd say aroused, but that was just too... But what if it was true? Hadn't Fukiko been raped before she was murdered? But that didn't automatically mean that the guy was about to rape anything that moved, and Conan had the body of a very small child. And a boy at that. Still, Conan wasn't naïve, he wasn't about to dismiss the thought just because he was a boy. Either way, he was in big trouble, as he was kidnapped by a lunatic who had murdered at least once, and was pretty likely to do it again if provoked.

Trying to move, Conan finally realized that he was tied up, his hands behind his back, clogged together with tape that did it's best to cut the circulation to his fingers. As he tried his best to move around without upsetting his aching head too much, he finally managed to get a better glimpse of the man that held him captive.

From what Conan could make out, the man was in his mid-thirties, he had wild, bleached hair that seemed fairly thin and wispy. He was dressed in some sort of jacket with a shirt underneath, and a pair of tight fitting pants. He wasn't thin, but he wasn't overweight either. From the look of things, Conan's best bet was that the man was a regular in some unnamed gym somewhere. To make matters worse, Conan noticed something in the man's left hand: A long, thick steel-pipe.

It couldn't have been the weapon used to knock him unconscious, Conan figured, since a blow from that pipe would more likely crush his skull and kill him on the spot.

"She had it coming, you know", the man suddenly growled. "She had it coming, that filthy bitch... You don't know where I'm coming from, do you, kid? You don't know why I had to take care of her. You think I'm a criminal, don't you? You think I've done something bad, ridding the world of her. You think I'm to blame..."

He walked closer to Conan, with each word his voice grew louder and more menacing. It didn't take a genius to figure out that this man wasn't all there so to speak, and Conan, well... he was a genius, and he felt his heart sink to the pit of his stomach. This man was a real psychopath, he was extremely dangerous and unpredictable, and Conan was alone with him.

His thoughts were cut short as the man suddenly stopped, grabbing the boy by his collar and pulling him up in the air.

"I'm not to blame", he screamed in Conan's face. "I am fucking not to blame! It's all her fault, don't you understand that? She's the bad one! She's the bad one!"

The man's grip around Conan's collar intensified, forcing the young boy to move his head so that he'd end up in a position where he could breathe more freely. The dizziness that lurked in the back of his head thrust forward with full force, and he found it extremely hard to focus his eyes. With a twinge of desperation he also felt the nausea stir in his far to empty stomach, forcing him to whisper between clenched teeth:

"Please, let me down... I feel sick, so please, let me down..."

Somehow his words seemed to reach the man, as he released the grip around Conan's collar and dropped the boy painfully on the ground. Conan couldn't keep from making a complaining sound of pain and humiliation, but soon enough got other things to worry about besides his aching behind. His stomach took a turn for the worse, and he tried to scramble away as quick as he could, not wanting to vomit all over the man's shoes.

This was so... undignified.

As Conan was pretty occupied throwing up, he didn't notice the man slowly removing his pants...

The Top Idol Utako was found murdered yesterday, and the entire music world is in shock!

The anchor on the morning-news read the news with a matter-of-fact voice, staring right into the camera, her perfectly manicured hands holding her manuscript just a little too tight.

Not a word, Ran thought with bewilderment. Not one word about a small child reported missing, a child who had last been seen around the area where Utako was murdered. What a funny world...

Ran dropped her spoon, surprised she had even thought about eating breakfast in the first place. She wasn't hungry. How could she be? She stared down at the bowl of cereal, feeling a bit sick to her stomach. Soggy cereal really looked disgusting. No, she definitely wasn't hungry anymore.

As she put the plate away and began wiping the table with a moist cloth, her father entered the kitchen. He looked haggard, he hadn't slept at all, he had puffy bags underneath his eyes, the lines in his face seemed to have intensified, and he hadn't shaved since yesterday morning. His clothes were untidy and he smelled of smoke and other stuff Ran really didn't want to think about.

"Any word about him", Ran reluctantly asked, she already knew the answer by the look on Kogoro's face. And of course she was right, he proved it to her by shaking his head.

"Nothing", he said, his already raucous voice almost inaudible. He looked so tired. "It's like that damned kid got swallowed up by the ground... I've always said it, right, pumpkin? He always sticks his nose where it doesn't belong. It's dangerous for a kid his age to deal with all kinds of filthy criminals. But did he listen? Hell no."

"Would you like some coffee or something, dad", Ran asked, trying her best not to look straight at her father. He looked so distraught, she felt she could start crying again just looking at him.

"Coffee? That would be nice, pumpkin", Kogoro sighed, looking out over Tokyo. "Ran... How are you feeling about all this?"

She almost dropped the can of coffee she held as she scoped coffee-powder into the brewer. Her father wasn't the most observant of people, and often one would just dismiss him as a lazy good-for-nothing drunk and slacker; but he was Mori Kogoro, the nationwide acknowledged detective who solved all his cases in his sleep, his brain was sharp enough once he bothered to use it. One shouldn't underestimate him, and she felt awful that she – his own daughter – had done just that.

"I don't really know", she answered after a short pause. "I mean, I know what I'm supposed to feel. I'm supposed to feel sad that Utako is dead, I'm supposed to be out of my mind, worrying myself crazy over Conan, and I know I'm supposed to feel really lonely, since Shinichi isn't here and can support me right now. I know that's what I'm supposed to feel. But what I do feel... I don't know. I can't feel it, dad... I can't feel my thoughts. I just got up, I made breakfast, but I didn't want breakfast, but I made it anyway, and then I didn't eat it, because you know, dad, it looks really gross, and then..."

"Ran!"

Suddenly a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her and a hand pushed her head close to her father's chest. She could smell him, could hear his heart beat through the shirt. The shirt was strangely wet by the way. Why was it...? She found it hard to breathe. She heard someone sobbing in the distance. Or was it in the distance? Wasn't it close...? Who was crying? Was her father crying?

"There there, Ran..." she heard him whisper. "It's all right. I will find him, I promise. We can't give up yet, Ran. So please, don't cry... There now..."

She shouldn't cry? Was she the one crying? Why was she crying...? Conan. Conan was missing, probably kidnapped by a madman who could kill him any second. Conan was... Conan... She couldn't take it anymore. She clung to her father like the lifeline he represented, clutched his arms so hard it would probably leave bruises, and she cried.

"Conan... Conan! CONAN!!"

The tall man with the long auburn hair wiped his hands and put his hat on. One quick glimpse in the mirror – he looked menacing enough – and then he stepped out of the public bathroom. He walked over to the nearby restaurant and waited for the waiter to place him at a table. He asked for one with view, and he got one. He sat down, looking over the menu. The food here was superb. Spanish and Italian, with a little Mexican thrown in for the adventurous.

Gin chose between a delicious paella and pasta prima vera – he didn't feel adventurous – and finally settled for the pasta. To that he ordered a bottle of champagne and two glasses.

As the waiter arrived with the glasses and the bottle, a young blonde woman entered the restaurant. She was tall, beautiful and her western features made her stand out among the guests. People started whispering to each other. Things like 'hey isn't that Chris Vineyard', and 'isn't that that famous actress from the U.S?' She gracefully ignored the comments about her as she sensually crossed the room on her way to Gin.

"I see you've all ready ordered", she observed as she sat down.

"You still have to order your food yourself", he replied dryly.

She made a cute little face, then looked down on the menu, her eyes carefully scanning the pages for something in her liking.

"They have Chicken Tacos here", she happily exclaimed and waved for the waiter.

"Taco and champagne? To each their own I guess..." Gin looked a bit apprehensive, but didn't care to press the matter further.

When they had enjoyed their meal for about ten minutes, Gin put his knife and fork away, eying Vineyard.

"I take it you wanted to see me for a particular reason? This isn't just a nice little get-together over a glass of champagne, is it?"

After wiping her mouth, Vineyard placed her elbows on the table, crossed her fingers as a bridge and placed her beautiful chin on the bridge, as she smiled smugly.

"You know I teach English in the class Kudo belonged to before, right?"

Gin nodded, of course he knew. Did she really think he was that stupid?

"Your point?"

"Do you know that I have my eyes on a little kid, related to Mori-kun in the class? His name is Edogawa Conan, six years old. From what I can tell, he's extremely bright, always manages to show up wherever Mori Kogoro solves a case, and, get this... He bares an uncanny resemblance with Kudo. What do you think about that?"

Gin's mind reeled. This was... And that bitch Vineyard...

"Why the hell haven't you told anyone about this sooner?! Don't you understand that this is information the guys higher up would have you eliminated for if they knew you were keeping this from them?"

"Please, give me more credit than that, Gin. Of course I understand that. What makes you think I'm keeping this from them? I have direct orders from higher up that I'm to investigate this child, report to them if there is no doubt in my mind that he actually is Kudo, and then proceed with the plan."

"What plan?!"

"I am not to tell you." She smiled at him, twirling a strand of her long, blonde hair between her fingers. "Sorry about that."

Trying his best to compose his anger, Gin took a quick sip of his champagne, hoping the cool, crisp liquid would calm him down somewhat.

"Then I'll ask you again. Why the get-together? As this clearly isn't one of my business."

"It _was_ none of your business", she corrected him. "Now, it is. Why you ask? Because as I was about to do something more drastic with the kid, he disappears. My sources tell me he probably was kidnapped by the same lowlife that murdered that idol girl yesterday. Your duty, my dear Gin, is to help me find that piece of trash, preferably before he manages to kill the boy. We want him alive."

"We do?"

"Yes we do. Because with him alive, we can easily lure our dear Sherry into a trap. I am pretty certain they're connected you see. And you do want to see Sherry again, don't you?"

"Of course", Gin sighed. "I understand."

"And...?"

"I'll help."

**_TO BE CONTINUED..._**


End file.
